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And now she stood, staring back at Owen. Here she was, once again presented with the consequences of acting on impulse, avoiding plans and sowing discontent, instead of just definitively saying I’m not interested in the beginning.
She couldn’t do this for the rest of her life.
“I’ll go with you,” she said, her lips barely moving. “But just as friends, Owen. We’re only ever going to be friends. If that’s acceptable to you, I’ll go. Otherwise, I understand if you’d rather go alone or with someone else.”
Her fellow gardener and longtime friend looked down at his feet. “Sort of had a feeling that would be your eventual answer.”
Briefly, she laid a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry if it’s not the one you want. But it’s not going to change.”
“Well.” He blew out a disappointed breath. “Thanks for being honest. I’ll give you a call about Saturday. Sound good?”
“Sounds great,” she called to Owen on his way out the door.
Now she only had to face Natalie.
“This was not worth a half gallon of milk,” Hallie mused out loud.
Natalie smirked, pushing off the shelves to saunter in Hallie’s direction. A full ten seconds passed without Julian’s sister saying anything. She squinted at Hallie, instead, circling around the back of her, a cop interviewing a perpetrator.
Finally, she said, “What the hell was that?”
Hallie started. “What the hell was what?”
“That awkward redhead asking you out. Doesn’t he know you’re seeing my brother?”
Huh? All right, that was the last thing she’d expected the other woman to say. “Um . . . are you still living in the guesthouse with Julian?”
“Yes.”
“And he didn’t tell you that we broke up?”
Saying those words out loud made Hallie’s eyes fill up with tears, so she tilted her head back and blinked up at the ceiling.
“Uh, I know he said some kind of bullshit about you both needing space. And then he locked himself in his office to finish his book. He hasn’t come out for two weeks. Unless he emerges when I’m passed out, which is more and more often these days.”
“You need to handle that.”
“I know. I have a plan. I just need a little more courage before I enact it.” A shadow danced across Natalie’s features; then she was back to being steely-eyed. “Look, I don’t know what happened between you two, but feelings don’t just—poof—go away. Not the kind you have for each other. Now, my ex-fiancé and I? Yeah, in hindsight, the success of that relationship was riding on money and image. I can see that now. You and Julian, though . . .” She gave Hallie a pleading look. “Don’t be each other’s one who got away. You can fix it.”
“I wrote him secret admirer letters and deceived him about it.”
“That was you?” Natalie sputtered. Gaped. “Why the hell did you do that, you crazy idiot?”
Hallie groaned. “It all sounds ridiculous now.”
“Well, yeah.”
“It started off with me wanting to get this . . . crush off my chest. But then, talking to him made me feel so much better about where I am. Who I am. Our discussions made my thoughts clearer. So I wrote my feelings to him in letters, hoping . . . to know myself and him better in the process. I didn’t think it all the way through, and that’s the problem. I never do. He was right to leave and stop taking my calls. He should forget all about me.”
Natalie scrutinized her for a breath, then patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. “All right, let’s not get dramatic.”
“This is nothing if not dramatic!” Julian’s sister was starting to look sympathetic, probably because of the tears that insisted on escaping her eyes, but Hallie didn’t want that sympathy. Not until she’d suffered for at least another decade. “I should go.”
“Wait.” Natalie stepped into her path, visibly uncomfortable with Hallie’s overwrought emotions. “Listen, I . . . get this. My brother barely talked to me for four years after rescuing me from a fire. It had the nerve to scare our stoic asses. We never learned how to express ourselves in a healthy way, so we lean on avoidance.” She gestured to herself. “See? Hello, I’m three thousand miles from the broken pieces of my life right now. Nice to meet you.”
Despite her misery, Hallie gave a watery laugh. “I see where you’re coming from, but . . .” He’s better off without me. “We’re better off apart.”
Hallie got the distinct impression that Natalie wanted to stomp a foot. “No, you’re not. Me and that arrogant Navy SEAL, August whatever, are better off apart.” She paused, looked far away for a moment, before shaking herself. “You and Julian are suffering right now, and one of you needs to stop being stubborn and fix it. Yes, I realize this is a pot-meet-kettle situation, but I’m not the one who wrote fake love letters, so I’m claiming the moral high ground for the purposes of this situation. If you go on a date with that dorky redhead, even as friends, I’m going to slash your tires.”
